Nissan Philippines Inc., has certainly surprised everyone with the reveal of its highly desirable Nismo line of high performance vehicles. The Nissan GT-R Nismo has been on sale in the Philippines since November of last year, and joining the Japanese brand’s arsenal of high performance vehicles is the Juke Nismo and 370Z Nismo.
Juke NISMO
The model on display is the Juke RS, which is a bit more powerful than the base Juke NISMO. An aggressive bodywork wraps around the vehicle, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that the looks are just for show. For the standard Juke NISMO, the 1.6-liter naturally aspirated petrol engine gets swapped to a turbocharged 1.6-liter petrol mill that produces 190 hp and 240 Nm of torque, which is a lot more than the 116 hp you get from the standard Juke. The RS variant, meanwhile, has the same engine, but at a higher state of tune, now pumping out 218 hp and 280 Nm of torque. Aware of the limitations of having a FWD drivetrain, the Juke NISMO gets an AWD system in order to send the power directly to the ground a lot better. Uprated brakes, chassis stiffening, and lower springs help the Juke NISMO have better grip.
370Z NISMO
The Z marks its return to the Philippines with the 370Z NISMO. Receiving its refresh in 2015, it gains a more aggressive new look that’s inspired from the GT-R NISMO, as well as revised components for better performance, ranging from an H-tuned exhaust, a tuned muffler, stiffer springs, chassis bracing, revised ECU, and larger NISMO brakes. This 370Z NISMO pumps out 350 hp and 374 Nm of torque, which is 18 more than the one in the standard 370Z. Power is sent through the rear wheels via a 6-speed manual with SyncroRevMatch for automatic rev matching without the need for heel-and-toeing, or a 7-speed automatic with Downshift Rev Matching.
The launch comes amidst of the brand’s strength in the Philippine market. Whereas most manufacturers saw a decrease in sales partly due to TRAIN, Nissan was able to sell 4,500 vehicles last August, which is its highest monthly sales figure ever, pushing the brand to third. Nissan Philippines Inc. managing director Ramesh Narasimhan sees the launch of the NISMO models as a sign of its commitment to the Philippine market.
Nissan has yet to finalize when these new NISMO line of vehicle will make it into dealerships. No pricing has been announced yet.
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